VOTE NO: The ballot for the separate enterprise agreement for AHPs + AHAs is about to open

The PSA urges all Allied Health members to VOTE NO to the proposed separate agreement. A quick reminder that:

• Its inadequate wage offer won’t keep up with inflation: 13.5% over four years will barely make up for the 10% erosion to your real wages (as at end of 2024) since the pandemic.

• It removes or waters down critical workplace rights: such as consultation rights, the RRR clauses (job protection), strong avenues to dispute excessive workloads and more.

• It dramatically shifts the balance of power in favour of the employer – stripping out most of the employer’s accountability and leaving you, as an employee, with very little say about the things that will affect you at work.

To find out more about why you should VOTE NO, see our FAQs below or

here

VOTE NO – SO WE CAN GO BACK TO THE TABLE TO NEGOTIATE A BETTER DEAL

The ballot opens at 9am on Monday 30 June 2025 and for one week only.

VOTE NO – and encourage your AHP and AHA colleagues to VOTE NO too!

Why AHPs and AHAs should VOTE NO on the separate agreement

Q: Why do the PSA and PSA members urge you to VOTE NO to the proposed separate agreement?

This separate agreement has an inadequate wage offer that will not keep up with inflation. It also removes or waters down critical workplace rights.

Overall, the proposed separate agreement dramatically shifts the balance of power in favour of the employer.

The proposed agreement strips out most of the accountability on your employer, and leaves you, as an employee, with very little say about the things that will affect you in your everyday working life.

Q: What’s wrong with the proposed wage rise?

The proposed wage rise is 13.5% over four years

4% in the first year
3.5% in the second year
3.5% in the third year
2.5% in the fourth year

The wages are not enough because they don't fix the damage of inflation and how inflation will impact us over the next 4 years.

The real value of our wages has eroded by around 10% since before the pandemic (as at the end of 2024)

 In real terms the offer is a pathetic 3.5% wage rise.

Additionally, there's a sneaky pay cut hidden in this agreement, which further subtracts from the 3.5%. 

Your ordinary hours will be increased to 38 hours per week by default.

This is a 1.3% increase in time with no change in wage, which is effectively a 1.3% pay cut. 

The actual wage increase in terms of real value is 2.2% over 4 years. 

Additionally the wages promotes inequity

While the new agreement gives some AHPs an extra 4%, the PSA believes ALL of our AHP/AHA members deserve a strong wage outcome that:

• immediately restores the real value of public sector wages – which, as at the end of 2024, have eroded by 10% since before the pandemic.

• protects against future inflation and recognises the value that public servants contribute to South Australia.

• addresses the current attraction and retention crisis across the state’s public sector by bringing wages into parity with federal and other state public servants and the private sector – and ensures that current conditions are kept or improved.

Q: I’ve heard there are no reduction in conditions in the separate agreement.

This is simply NOT true. Here’s just some of what you stand to lose:

Watered down consultation rights

In the current agreement: employees must be consulted about any change that affects them. This gives you a genuine opportunity to influence decision-making processes about your workplace and conditions.

If there are problems with the consultation process, the PSA can – and does – lodge disputes and takes agencies to the South Australian Employment Tribunal (SAET) when necessary to fight for your right to real consultation.

The separate agreement: confines the things that need to be consulted on by:

• empowering the employer to decide whether the change meets their new definition for workplace change

• empowering the employer to decide whether a change is significant enough to get your feedback

• removing your right to take industrial action when there is a dispute on

• stating that a decision to move to seven-day work is exempt from consultation

• denying the status quo provisions when in a dispute about seven-day work.
  
  

Heavily reduced RRR clauses (job security)

The current agreement: Redeployment, Retraining and Redundancy (also known as RRR) offer strong protections to ensure you:

• don’t get declared excess unnecessarily

• get proper case management if you’re declared excess

• get the support of your employer to be placed in a genuine vacancy

• receive training for a new role if necessary

• receive a redundancy payout if there isn’t a suitable role for you, or you choose to move on from the public sector.

The separate agreement: has reduced the RRR 12 page appendix down to three pages, completely watering down all these protections. If this agreement goes through, all your employer needs to do if you’re declared excess is to:

• make sure that you're aware of the “I work for SA” website

• help you access to the pre-employment list, and

• training (this is not defined in any way).

The onus will be on your to find yourself a job within 12 months, with no accountability on your employer.

Watered down protection against unreasonable workloads

The current agreement: provides strong protections from excessive workloads, and includes strong avenues members can use to raise disputes about your workloads, including establishing Local Workload Consultative Forums (LWCFs).

The separate agreement: removes the strong protections members previously won, with protections watered down to say ‘workloads shouldn’t be excessive’. It has removed Local Workload Consultative Forums (LWCFs) and moves the dispute process back to conditions from 10 years ago. Basically, it’s removed employer accountability – with no new measures to protect workers.

Increased ordinary hours or work:

In the new agreement: the default position for ordinary hours of work (the hours you can be expected to work) are 38 hours a week and can be averaged out over a four-week period, rather than the usual 37.5 hours. This is a 1.3% increase in your work hours – with no extra pay.

Ordinary hours for shifts can be from 7.5 up to 12 hours. If you work a 12-hour shift, you won’t receive any overtime for doing so.

Q: Will my current Monday to Friday hours stay the same?

Under the new agreement, your work hours can be changed from Monday to Fridays to a seven-day roster with three months’ notice. This will majorly disrupt your work / life balance.

Under this agreement, no consultation is required about a decision to move to seven-day work.

If you raise a dispute about the implementation, the proposed agreement gives the employer the right to continue on with implementation despite there being a dispute. This is the opposite to how dispute resolution currently works, with the process currently needing to be put on hold until a dispute is resolved.

Q: But won’t a separate Agreement for AHPs/AHAs give us wages and conditions that are more relevant just to our profession?

There’s no evidence to support this – in fact:

• There is nothing in the proposed Separate Agreement that can’t be dealt with in the current Agreement. It already contains specific clauses relevant to AHPs and AHAs which can be kept, expanded and improved on.

• Separating workers goes against every union’s experience that there is always strength in numbers.

Q: What happens if we vote NO?

We can go back to the negotiating table to continue to advocate for a strong wage outcome and without removal of critical work conditions.

In fact, that’s what workers at SA Water and Parliament House recently did when they received poor offers. They voted them down and went back to demand a better offer.

Remember, almost every public sector agreement is currently up for negotiation. This proposed separate agreement is the first one going to ballot. It’s the litmus test for all other agreements – including your work colleagues under the Salaried Agreement.

Don’t let the government get away with paying you less than you’re worth and removing your critical work conditions! VOTE NO.

Q. When will we get the voting ballot?

The ballot will open at 9am on Monday, 30 June 2025. It only runs for a week. The PSA strongly recommends that you VOTE NO, and that you encourage your AHP and AHA colleagues to VOTE NO too! If the majority of people who vote VOTE NO, we protect our conditions and get back to the negotiating table to advocate for a better wage rise.

Q. Where can I get more information?

The PSA is holding online meetings about the agreement - click here to register.

All of our information about the proposed agreement is available online here.

THE BEST OUTCOMES COME FROM STANDING UNITED

We all know that PSA members working together can improve outcomes for public sector workers and the community. You and your colleagues have the power to make a real difference. But we have to be in it together to make that difference.

Ask those yet to join you in the PSA to join online today.

YOUR UNION, YOUR VOICE, YOUR AGREEMENT

Contact: youragreement@psaofsa.asn.au

30 June 2025

Please distribute to all PSA AHP and AHA Members.